Read The Archer (The Blood Realm Series Book 3) Online
Authors: Jennifer Blackstream
Tags: #Robin Hood, #artistocrat, #magic, #angel, #werewolf, #god, #adventure, #demon, #vampire, #air elemental, #paranormal, #romance, #fantasy, #fairy tale, #loup garou, #rusalka, #action, #sidhe, #prince, #mermaid, #royal
The Archer (The Blood Realm Series Book 3) (56 page)
The thought of facing all those people again, the ones who had abandoned Maribel’s family in their time of need but who would welcome them all too willingly once they were once again rich enough to deserve respect… It turned her stomach.
Selfish wretch.
Maribel buried her face against her father’s shoulder, the rough material scratching at her wind stung cheek.
This is exactly what Corrine needs, what she’s prayed for. How dare you begrudge her this moment?
“All right, all right.” Their father pulled back, his eyes shining with excitement. “I will bring you both something wonderful. Tell me what you want, anything!”
“A new dress,” Corrine answered breathlessly. “My old ones are so worn, and they don’t fit me properly since we’ve been starving out here. I want something with silk and lace, something that will let me remember what life used to be like when we were happy.”
Her sister’s words stung. Maribel had worked hard to learn to cook, had slaved over a hot fire for months trying to perfect her recipes, digging in the forest for herbs that would bring rich flavors to the food she cooked for her father and sister. Yes, there’d been that first winter, but Corrine certainly hadn’t “starved” since then. Maribel had actually dared to hope that her culinary skills had gotten quite good, perhaps enough to appreciate.
Only compared with starving, apparently
, she thought bitterly.
“And, my Maribel, tell me what I can get for you? Would you like a new dress too? Jewelry perhaps?”
“I don’t need anything, Father,” Maribel said meekly. “Really, I don’t.”
Corrine’s face twisted like she’d swallowed a live toad. “You think I’m selfish for asking for a nice dress. You think I should be grateful for what we have here, that I’m a spoiled child for wanting pretty things when there’s no reason to have them out here.”
“No,” Maribel protested quickly, hoping she sounded more sincere than she felt. “No, that isn’t it at all.”
“Then you would like a dress as well?” her father prompted.
Maribel tightened her hands into fists, trying to smother her frustration. A dress. What on earth could she want with a new dress? Another uncomfortable entrapment to hinder her in her chores, a reminder of the wretched life waiting for her with the nobility, a life she’d escaped and was now doomed to go back to? She didn’t want a dress. She didn’t want anything, damn it!
Her grip closed around the book she still held and inspiration struck. “No! No, it’s just, there’s something else I want more.” She hefted the book up and flipped to the page with the rare rose. She held it up for her father and pointed at the picture. “If you can find this in one of the florist shops or perhaps at an apothecary, then it will be as expensive as ten gowns.” She bit her lip. “I’m afraid I’m the one who’s asking for too much. But they grow wild as well, perhaps you will see one during your travels?”
Her father examined the picture. “A dress for my Corrine and a rose for my Maribel. I will do my very best.”
He handed the book back to Maribel and headed back to the farmhouse. “I must prepare for the journey now, I want to leave immediately. That ship is sitting in the harbor, I don’t want to leave it there for one second more than is necessary!”
Corrine threw her arms around Maribel and hung there like a sticky cobweb. “Oh, Maribel, it’s almost over. I can feel it, everything is going to be better now.”
Maribel hugged her sister back as guilt ate her alive from the inside out.
Ahoy, ebook pirates!
All right, so here's the deal. Amazon has a program called "Amazon Associates" whereby people can earn referral fees for sending people to Amazon. It's sort of like a "finder's fee" negotiated by a burly sea captain. Or perhaps a roguish treasure hunter. Maybe a dragon-shifter with a head for business... I digress. Basically, when you click on a referral link, Amazon pays the associate (in this case, me) a very small percentage of whatever you spend during that session. So if you click that link and buy, say, LEGO Super Heroes Super Hero Airport Battle for $75.70, then Amazon takes your $75.70 and gives me somewhere around $2.
Now, some of you are reading this because you got your hands on a pirated copy of one of my books. I'm not going to lecture you or shame you or beg you to stop. I spent an hour last night begging my daughter to go to sleep, so I'm all groveled out for at least the next 12 hours. All I'm going to say is this: If you got any enjoyment out of my work, please consider clicking on the link below the next time you need to buy something from Amazon. You won't be spending a penny more than you would have anyway, and I'll get a little compensation for all the time and effort I put into writing the book so I can continue to write more books. Clicking the link is not an acknowledgement that you pirated one of my books. Even if you are a wonderful person who paid for this book, if you'd like to use this link to help me earn enough money for the next Lego set with a superhero in it (even though we all know my son's going to build it, then discard the majority in favor of playing with only the little people) then you can click the link too.
Here's the link:
http://amzn.to/1TaOQBs
If for some reason you can't bring yourself to click the link, consider leaving a review for the book. Reviews help too.
All right, back to writing. Thank you for reading,
Jennifer Blackstream
About the Author
Jennifer Blackstream is a psychology enthusiast with both a B.A. and M.A. in Psychology. Her fascination with the human mind is most appeased through the study of mythology and folklore as well as any novel written by Sir Terry Pratchett.
Jennifer enjoys listening to Alice Cooper, trying new recipes (to which she will add garlic whether it calls for it or not), watching television with her family, and playing with her woefully intelligent young son. She lives in Ohio.
Jennifer spends most of her time drinking coffee from her X-Men mug and desperately trying to get all her ideas written down before her son can find that all magical button on her laptop to make her latest work vanish.
To learn more about Jennifer Blackstream and her novels, visit her website at
http://www.jenniferblackstream.com/
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Copyright
The Archer
©Copyright Jennifer Blackstream 2016
Skeleton Key Publishing
Cover Art Clarissa Yeo of Yocla Designs © 2016
This is a work fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
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Published in 2016 by Skeleton Key Publishing, Norton, Ohio, United States of America
Table of Contents
Preview of ALL FOR A ROSE, book one in the BLOOD REALM series